Paleo for the average Jane

Citrus Glazed Baby Bok Choy

So I was looking for something to make with my 4S chicken, and these beautiful baby bok choy called out to me in the supermarket. They were just so pretty, I couldn’t help myself. This recipe isn’t sweet per se, but there is a touch of sweetness among all the tang and flavor. This can be amped up with a half a teaspoon of honey, which I might do if serving these little beauties with something a bit more plain, but with the chicken it was perfect without.

Don’t feel constrained to only serve the sauce with bok choy. This would be great with a variety of different veggies. The process remains the same: make and reduce sauce, steam veggies, cook veggies with sauce, re-reduce sauce. Play around with it!

It looks like a lot of steps, and like it would take a long time, but the whole thing goes pretty quick. MAYBE 20 minutes (if you are taking notes and pictures while cooking.) at the most, so don’t be intimidated by the fact that I felt the need to overcompensate for my crappy picture taking last post with 365465121 pictures for this post. Go forth…. make citrus glazed veggies.

Squeeze all the tasty juice out. Feel free to use a juicer or whatever, but my fruit was so ripe that it was very easy to just squeeze the beasts dry. Do all the fruit.

Add 1 tablespoon of coconut aminos (or soy sauce… whatevs!)

Grate the two cloves of garlic…

And the nub of ginger.

Stir, stick the pot on stove, and start reducing. Make sure to stir it fairly often, as it would be really sad if it burnt. However, don’t feel the need to stand over it obsessively. Just keep an eye on it and stir it while prepping bok choy.

If there are any gross or weird parts on the bok choy, just peel that leaf off. Cut the little beauties in half.

Spend a moment admiring how pretty they are… They really are silly pretty looking.

The sauce should be nicely reducing along, and simmering nicely.

It’s reduced enough when a spoon (or rubber spatula, my weapon of choice) run along the bottom of the pan leaves a streak of pan showing for a moment. When it gets to this point, take the sauce off the heat.

Let it cook for a moment, as it’s lava hot when it first comes off. Once it cools for a sec, taste, and add salt and pepper to taste. I didn’t add much salt, and just gently peppered it. Some people like more salt, some people like less. Whatever makes your skirt fly up, yo.

Drizzle some olive oil in the frying pan, and get it nice and hot.

Throw some of the bok choy halves in there, cut side down. Don’t crowd too much… this is just to get a sear on them, so if it takes two batches, no worries. Or, you know, don’t be like me and just wash the bigger frying pan. But I was lazy, and made the small one work.

Get a bit of brown on the veggies. This just adds a bit of texture and flavor.

Once there is a bit of sear on there, cram all the veg in the pan and add some water (MAYBE an eighth of a cup… not much at all).

Cover the pan and let the veggies steam for 3 to 5 minutes…

Until they are a bit tender.

Pour the reduces sauce over the veggies. NOW: there will still be liquid in the bottom of the pan, don’t worry about that. It’ll loosen the sauce up, and allow it to get into all the nooks and crannies. The sauce does need to reduce first, to allow everything to develop and cook, so don’t think the reducing can be skipped. But it’s easy enough, so don’t stress about having an extra step.

Let the sauce and veg cook a bit on the flat side…

And then flip them over and let them cook for a while longer, until everything is tender and glazed.

Pop the veg out of the pan…

And finish reducing the sauce again, until thick and shiny and tasty looking.

Pour the sauce over the veg. So good!!

So pretty and so tasty! A flavorful, quick, easy, and impressive seeming side dish.